Chef Aarón Sánchez, the chef/partner of Johnny Sánchez restaurants and MASTERCHEF television personality, is launching an initiative within The John Besh Foundation called the Aarón Sánchez Scholarship Fund (ASSF).
“It can be difficult to work your way up the ladder from dishwasher or line cook to executive chef,” Sánchez said in an email interview, “and I feel like there aren’t many opportunities for aspiring chefs, especially from the Latin community, to get to that next level.”
ASSF is a program that will focus on mentorship and scholarships for the Latin community, inspiring and empowering aspiring Hispanic chefs to follow their dreams and attend culinary school in the United States: The International Culinary Center. At this program, Chef Aarón will mentor these students and bring them to Mexico for a once-in-a-lifetime internship.
“Some of the most important lessons I’ve learned from my mentors were outside of the kitchen, so I think it’s important to just spend time with each recipient, learning who they are, where they are from and what they want to accomplish.”
To launch this initiative, Aarón will host a dinner called “Aarón Sánchez’s Mentor’s Dinner” featuring his mentor Chef Douglas Rodriguez and his mentees Chef Deuki Hong, Chef Jose Colin Jr., and Chef Miles Landrem (who is also the executive chef at Johnny Sánchez in New Orleans). The five-course dinner with wine pairings will take place on November 3, 2016 at New Orleans restaurant Pigeon & Prince (129 Camp Street, New Orleans) beginning at 7:00pm.
See invite here.